1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the dyeing or the textile-printing on cloths by an ink-jet method.
2. Related Background Art
Screen textile printing and roller textile printing are presently prevailing as textile printing. These methods, however, are not suited for the multi-item and small-quantity production and cannot quickly respond to fashion with ease. Accordingly, there is a recent demand for establishing electronic textile printing systems that require no printing plates. To answer such a demand, a number of proposals have been made on textile printing carried out by ink-jet printing, which increasingly attracts expectations from various fields.
Inks for ink-jet textile printing are required to satisfy the following:
(1) They impart densities sufficient for color formation. PA1 (2) They have a high color yield to cloths and enable easy effluent treatment after the step of washing. PA1 (3) They cause less irregular bleeding on cloths when different colors are mixed. PA1 (4) They can achieve color reproduction in a wide range. PA1 (5) They allow simpler process management. PA1 (a) forming a mixed color area made of at least two different colors on said cloth by ejecting successively ink droplets using at least one of an yellow ink and a black ink and at least one ink selected from the group consisting of a red ink, a green ink and a blue ink, the adhered quantity of corresponding dyes in said mixed color area being from 0.025 to 1 mg/cm.sup.2 ; PA1 (b) dyeing said cloth having been subjected to the step (a), with the dyes adhered to said cloth by subjecting to a heat treatment; and PA1 (c) washing said cloth having been subjected to the step (b), to remove from said cloth a dye or dyes having not been adsorbed or fixed; and said mixed color area is formed by ejecting ink droplets in the order initiated with a black ink and terminated with an yellow ink.
In order to satisfy these requirements, it has been hitherto mainly attempted to add various additives to inks, to control ink-shot quantities and to apply a pretreatment to cloths. Using these methods only, however, it has been impossible to satisfy the requirement (3) or (4).
Though not concerned with cloths, a method that can satisfy the requirement (3) includes, for example, methods in which the order of ink-shot is controlled as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-19582 and No. 62-161541, and a method that can satisfy the requirement (4) includes methods in which specialty color inks are used in addition to cyan, magenta and yellow colors as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-109095 and No. 58-53445. In the case of cloths, however, situation is different from the recording on paper, and there are differences in color yield of dyes to-cloths or changes in lightness after dyeing. Moreover, in methods making use of red, green and blue inks, the bleeding at mixed color areas may become more problematic, and it has been difficult to better satisfy the requirements (3) and (4) than in the case of the recording on paper.
In addition, the textile printing on cloths requires finally a washing step to remove dyes having not been adsorbed or fixed in cloths, and must be handled in a different way than in the case of the usual recording on paper that requires no conventional washing step.
As discussed above, some conventional techniques can provide measures by which some of the requirements or performances can be satisfied individually. Under existing circumstances, however, no ink-jet color textile printing processes are known until now which can satisfy these performances at the same time, can solve a series of problems and makes it possible to obtain prints of the highest grade.